YARMOUTH — State Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, D-Yarmouth, on Tuesday said she will not seek re-election in House District 107. Democrat Janice Cooper, at one time an aide to former U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, has filed to run for the seat Innes has held since 2008. Innes said she decided against seeking a third, two-year term […]

CUMBERLAND — Next year’s municipal budget could cause a tax increase of half a percent. The impact of the School Administrative District 51 budget remains to be seen, although Town Manager Bill Shane on Monday suggested school spending could boost the tax hike to a combined 4 percent to 6 percent. Shane presented his recommended […]

PORTLAND — Neighborhood association leaders are grappling with reshaping their relationship with the city, collectively questioning not just how they want to structure their interaction with City Hall, but what issues they want to work on, too. Consensus, however, has been elusive for the city’s many neighborhood groups, and solidifying the evolving relationship between them […]

FALMOUTH — The Town Council on Monday received a proposal to create a Waterview Overlay District in the Foreside and Flats neighborhoods east of Route 88. It is the first step in a three-phase approach that will be discussed at length in the coming months.  If approved, all single-family home expansion projects in the district […]

FREEPORT — A dispute between two well-known, longtime Maine companies ended last week when L.L. Bean was ordered to pay more than $960,000 to the owners of Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington. Maine Superior Court Justice Andrew M. Horton heard the case in the state Consumer and Business Court in Portland. He decided Bean owed […]

FALMOUTH — The Town Council on Monday voted against expanding boat access at Highland Lake, but asked the state to continue stocking the lake with fish. The unanimous vote against changing the public boat launch off Lowell Farm Road came months after a representative of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife first told town […]

PORTLAND — The compromise budget that the state Senate passed last week for the Department of Health and Human Services preserves some of the services city officials were most concerned about losing. But with lawmakers set to cut another $85 million in time for the 2013 budget that begins July 1, the agreement was less […]

FREEPORT — A Freeport Middle School teacher has an April 17 court date in West Bath District Court after being accused of threatening students on Feb. 7. David Mason, 58, of Yarmouth, was charged by police with Class D terrorizing on Feb. 14, Police Department Lt. Susan Nourse said Tuesday. The charge is a Class […]

PORTLAND — Sea level is rising, emergency-level storms are becoming more frequent, and the city must start planning for an uncertain future where extreme weather is not only possible but probable, officials said during a series of events at the end of February. The city sponsored two events last week to release the details of […]

PORTLAND — The search for a new school chief continues as retiring Superintendent James C. Morse Sr. announced plans to take a job in New Hampshire. Morse, who will retire as head of Portland schools June 30, said he will start the following day as superintendent of the Oyster River School District. The district has […]